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World leaders meet to emit hot air

Keith Parkins | 23.09.2009 13:08 | COP15 Climate Summit 2009 | Climate Chaos | Energy Crisis | World

World leaders are meeting in New York to fiddle whilst the planet burns.

tar sands banner drop over Niagara Falls
tar sands banner drop over Niagara Falls


China has said it will limit the rate of growth of its carbon emissions.

China is the world's biggest carbon emitter. We need to see a drastic decrease, not a slowing of the rate of increase.

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8268792.stm

The best we have heard from the US is cuts of a few percent.

US is the world's second biggest carbon emitter. The US has to cut its emissions by at least 40% by 2020.

Added together, China and the US account for nearly 40% of world emissions of carbon.

Some teeny weeny steps in the right direction, but nowhere near enough.

Australia is the world's biggest emitter of carbon per capita. Australia is proposing to increase its emissions. Hazelwood, the world's worst polluting power station, due to be shut down, has now had an increase in life until at least 2031.

 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/09/437939.html

Canada, already a major polluter, will shoot to the top of the table if tar sands production goes ahead.

The expansion of the tar sands will strip mine an area the size of Florida. Complete with skyrocketing rates of cancer (by 400%!) for First Nations communities living downstream, broken treaties, toxic belching lakes so large you can see them from outer space, churning up ancient boreal forest, destroyed air and water quality, the tar sands have been called the most destructive project on Earth.

 http://understory.ran.org/2009/09/15/breaking-activists-drop-70-banner-off-of-niagra-falls-to-tell-canadian-pm-no-tar-sands-oil/

World leaders are playing a game of poker where economic growth trumps climate change. They forget to check the rules, climate change trumps economic growth.

Sadly many would-be activists are little better. A vociferous minority expend a huge amount of their energy attacking those who are doing something, rather than addressing the real issues themselves.

 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/09/438312.html?c=on

Keith Parkins
- Homepage: http://www.heureka.clara.net/gaia

Comments

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Tamsin again - sorry!

23.09.2009 14:06

'Sadly many would-be activists are little better. A vociferous minority expend a huge amount of their energy attacking those who are doing something, rather than addressing the real issues themselves"

Just because someone does something, it doesn't necessarily add up that it always for the best. A lot of people here obviously don't think what Tamsin Ormond and Climate Rush do is any good. Surely that's okay.

Slagging off Tamsin Ormond on Indymedia doens't really take 'a huge amount of energy'. All it takes is about five minutes. Whether it's pointless, I don't know. Probably! But this also doesn't mean that the criticisers aren't actually making a useful contribution elsewhere to the struggles against climate change and capital's disinterest in the impending disaster.

Triple PPP


China?

23.09.2009 14:10

Per Captia Emissions are more relevant than total / state. China's emissions also include those making shit for the US. See link.

Nice banner!
- Homepage: http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/withouthotair/c30/figure242.png


Per Capita Emissions

23.09.2009 14:26

Per Capita Emissions - Per Country Emissions: It does not matter how you measure it, the carbon emissions are growing, when we have to see drastic cuts!

But it is true, China is basically an off-shore manufacturing site for the West.

But, no matter where located, we have to see drastic cuts, not the pissing in the wind we have seen so far.

An example of UK hypocricy, open cast coal mining to secure our energy position

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/8270681.stm

Keith
- Homepage: http://www.heureka.clara.net/gaia/


Sounds like someone's feathers have been ruffled!

23.09.2009 18:17

An absense of nice bodies for you to drool over Keith?

Working class gal